First of all, I am not a programmer. Really, I am just like you; sitting in that chair trying to figure out how to do things faster and more accurately with less "loss of brain cells" - like, maybe, automatically!
But, over the years, I have learned how to program. And the deeper I get in, the more I see how much time can be saved through automation, and how it much it can benefit you and your staff.
The advantage I do have as the result of the 25-some years I have had in yours, or similar positions, is that I have a good understanding of what can help you. When designing some automated tool, we always keep the end result in mind. Then it is just a case of figuring out how to get there.
Some of this stuff can appear to be like "magic", but it's not; its just programming with Visual Basic. Anything that is going on with the templates, you could do yourself - manually.
But all the steps you would have to go through, and there could literally be dozens of them, can be programmed for your computer to do. The thing is, you are smarter than your computer; it only does what you tell it to do. But as far as speed goes, you can't touch it! What takes several minutes for you to do can be done by your computer in milliseconds. It is not going through fewer steps than you, it just goes so darn fast that it seems that way.
So, take advantage of all that speed and see about getting these automated templates working for you! If you are like me, you will get a real kick out of watching your computer do all the work -- after all, that's what it's there for!
Brian D. Reicks CPA
The "Resume Version"
Brian Reicks has over 25 years in the retail automotive industry, with experience in various financial management positions with dealerships large and small, and dealer groups both public and private. Some of those groups include Sonic Automotive, AutoNation, and the Van Tuyl Group.
Brian is a CPA with active licenses in Colorado and Texas. Additionally, he holds Masters degrees in Business Administration (1993), Finance (1998), and Management Information Systems (2001) from the University of Houston, and the University of Houston - Clear Lake.
